But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. 

      John 4:23-24

From this point on, we will make the assumption that we recognize our need for restoration and acknowledge that the only way for this to take place is by surrendering our lives to Christ, that we have already done that, and are now walking in the power of His Spirit within us. With that being said, let’s look at several restorative activities that we, as Christians, can do in our lives. And the first of these activities…worship. 

In our modern culture, worship can sometimes be mistakenly thought of as something that we do in a church building once a week. And yes, we should be involved in a local church where we meet with other like-minded believers and worship God corporately. But to limit worship to a weekly activity would be to completely misunderstand the concept of what God wants for each and every one of us. The reality is that worship is a lifestyle. To wake each morning, in the glory of God’s mercies, new and alive (Lamentations 3:22-23), with an acknowledgment of God’s gift of a new day (Psalm 118:24), rejoicing (1 Thessalonians 5:16), praying (1 Thessalonians 5:17), giving thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:18), and anticipating God’s activity in our lives (Ephesians 3:20), is what worshiping is all about. It is an appropriate response to who God is, what He has already done for us on the cross, and thanking Him for His faithfulness, even when we have not been faithful to Him. This is at the heart of worship. But we have to train our mind and heart to be receptive to His presence and walk in the power of that presence in our lives. Tragically, so many miss out on this wonderful, superior, and eternal way of living. And it’s not just unbelievers that preclude worship from their lives. Born again believers in Jesus Christ, who ignore or neglect biblical promises, are unaware of the surpassing greatness of God’s power living within them (Ephesians 1:19, 3:20), or grieve the Holy Spirit with a life of sin and strife, are robbing themselves of restoration through a lifestyle of worship and intimacy with the Father. But God’s Word has plenty to say about what He desires for us and restoration comes to all who know God and who live a lifestyle of worship to Him. 

Today’s passage is from a conversation that Jesus had with a Samaritan woman. As Jesus gets uncomfortably close to the woman’s personal life, she quickly changes the topic (another subject for another time). She asks Jesus about worship and today’s passage is His response to the questions that she is raising. “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth…” Jesus mentions “true worshipers.” And with the idea of “true” comes the reality of “false.” People “worshiping God,” at least from outward appearance, yet are living lifestyles contrary to the truth of God’s Word and lack an authentic relationship with the One in whom they would declare they are worshiping, is quite common in today’s culture. God actually declared this same thing about the people of Israel under the old covenant: 

“Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote…”

    Isaiah 29:13

What was the problem? Their words sounded great but the life didn’t square with what they were claiming. In other words, the outward looked great while the inward was lacking. “This people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me.” That was God’s assessment of the people. “Lip service” is what we refer to when someone says something that they do not sincerely mean or even intend to fulfill. Lip service is false to the core. And when it comes to our worship of God, empty lip service, offered up as a satisfactory offering to God, while keeping our hearts far from Him, is nothing more than just that…empty. It has no meaning, isn’t acceptable to God, and will not bring about restoration. Jesus also used the passage from Isaiah when sizing up the Pharisees of His day (Matthew 15:8-9). The reverence of the people consisted of mere rote, memorized, performed, and substituted for authentic worship, all the while living with hearts that were far from God. This was the problem with the people of Israel, the problem with the Pharisees, and the problem with those who flippantly offer up a “tip of the cap” to God before going about their daily business. 

So, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that God is looking for true worshipers. So what does that look like? Jesus mentions it twice. “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” So what are the two elements of true, authentic worship? Jesus says they are “spirit and truth.” Everything that we do in worship should be based on the Spirit of God, living within our heart, causing our spirit to rejoice. Said another way…without the Holy Spirit, there is no authentic worship of God and there will certainly be no restoration of our heart, mind, or soul. Consider the following: 

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Romans 8:15-17 

There it is! There’s our reason to celebrate, our reason to hope, and our reason to worship! If we belong to Christ, we belong to the kingdom of God and, as children of God, enjoy all of the promises that He has made to us in scripture. Religion simply will not accomplish that. Religion will not lead us to the life that God so wants for us to experience by the power of the Spirit in our lives, guiding us, strengthening us, and making a way for us to experience true, authentic worship.

The other element of true worship is truth. This is found in the Word of God and everything that we do should be consistent with what God’s Word has to say about it. God has given us everything that we need in His Spirit and in His Word. To neglect either of these, or trying live without them, will only yield a life that is missing the mark and desperately in need of restoration. But the good news is that, as children of God, we have the Spirit and the Word. What we do with these invaluable resources is up to us, but we should choose wisely because our living a life of victory hangs in the balance. 

Before we close, let’s take a moment to appreciate what the Spirit of God and the Word of God (the Bible) will do for us. Most, if not all, debates, questions, doubts, and skepticism can be addressed by the presence of God and the Word. These two heavenly resources, working in tandem with one another, will create an environment where false teaching, secular beliefs, and empty worldly philosophies cannot stand (2 Corinthians 10:5). This is why Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that the true worshipers “will worship” and “must worship” in spirit and truth. 

Restoration is ours in Jesus. And one of the restorative activities, in which we get to take part, is that of worship!

For this reason also, God highly exalted Him (Jesus), and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

          Philippians 2:9-11